June 8, 2003

Halls of Mandros & Other Matters
Manofwesternesse

Ok , now I’m confused about the Halls of Mandros too (and I thought I knew before the recent debate on the matter).
My understanding was that Elves who did not die passed across the Sea to Valinor. Elves who died in ME (be it in battle or however) went to the Halls of Mandros , there to await the end.
Men who die (and, essentially, they all do) go to - Mr Tolkien never says where (and whatever Mr Tolkien says is good enough for me).

Pip’s recent comments on Lilly & G were a bit OTT (over the top), for me. Yes Lilly posts a lot but why not, it’s good (& refreshing) to see someone young with so much interest in Tolkien. I’ve always found G’s posts to be interesting & with good insight.
As for not discussing the Book (THE BOOK), come on…

In reply to Lilly’s posting on the Elves coming to Helm’s Deep. In the Book there were no Elves at Helms Deep. The 2 Sons of Elrond did indeed come to Rohan with the Dunedain, but that was after Helms Deep, when Aragorn & Theoden were returning to Edoras from Isengard.
However I have to say that it was a brilliant piece of scripting & acting by the whole team. If I was scripting it I would never have had the bottle to bring Haldir and a few hundred Elves to Helms Deep, and then have Haldir die there. (You’d be killed by diehards like me for that!) & yet I have to agree in hindsight with PJ and the team – for the Movie this was a brilliant move which gave the audience (many non-Book readers) an insight into the sacrifice that Haldir made (& into the history of the Alliance of Elves and Men, which they might not have picked up from the opening prologue to FoTR)